The Sturgeon Bay School Board on Wednesday unanimously approved placing a three-year nonrecurring revenue cap override referendum question on the April ballot.

If approved, the district could exceed the state-imposed revenue cap up to $1.9 million for the 2016-17 school year, $2.25 million for 2017-18 and $2.7 million for the 2018-19 school year. According to the resolution, the funds would be used for “non-recurring purposes consisting of funding educational programming for students.”

Sturgeon Bay is coming to the end of a three-year nonrecurring operational referendum. In spring 2013 district taxpayers approved allowing the district to exceed the state-imposed revenue limit by $1 million for the 2013-14 school year, $1.3 million for 2014-15 and up to $1.6 million for the current 2015-16 school year.

The proposed mill rates are $11.48 per $1,000 valuation on a home in 2016-17, $11.93 per $1,000 in 2017-18 and $12.65 per $1,000 in 2018-19.

Superintendent Dan Tjernagel stressed the referendum was not due to any mismanagement of funds or adding programs.

The school has made a number of cuts and reductions over the years, including staffing and changing employee benefits, he said.

"Not doing so would have, of course, caused massive cuts ... and of course could jeopardize the future of our educational system," Tjernagel said.

Board member Pam Seiler commented on how the board had managed to take care of many of the district needs throughout the years.

"I would just like to say over the years, I think, one of the things the board has done is try to make sure that we are taking care a lot of capital needs, issues as they arose with the budget or savings that we would have ... without having to go to a capital needs referendum," she said.

Board member Amy Stephens spoke about the uncertain cost of things like health insurance .

"To the best that we can project out three years, in a time when everybody knows health insurance is such a difficult thing to predict even next year ... a lot of this is based on payroll and benefits increases over the next three years " she said.

If anything comes in lower than expected, the board will not tax to its full authority, Stephens said.

The board also approved retirements for T.J. Walker Middle School Principal Randy Watermolen and Sandy Andre, food service director.